Child resistant lid assemblies for open head cylindrical containers are disclosed in Applicant's U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,967,926, 5,125,538 and 7,513,384 (incorporated herein by reference) and others, wherein a threaded connection is provided between the container and lid and at least one resiliently biased locking member is pivotally connected to the lid which cooperates with locking teeth on the container to secure the lid to the container. Applicant's U.S. Pat. No. 5,377,858, incorporated herein by reference, relates to a rectangular container which the applicant believes to be an excellent product.
While these child resistant lid assemblies have been satisfactory for their intended purpose, the construction and arrangement of the lid closure, container and associated locking member resulted in the use of a significant amount of plastic material in the design shown in the '858 patent.
Furthermore, the open head containers upon which the lids and associated locking members are connected are cylindrical, thereby requiring more space for pallet loading and storage than would be required if the containers were rectangular. Rectangular containers for maximizing use of pallet space are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,606,586 and 3,307,739; however, these containers do not include child resistant lid assemblies. U.S. Pat. No. 5,377,858 has a child resistant lid assembly, but it provides internal teeth in the container which are engaged by a locking member on the lid which engages at least one of those teeth through the lid for the locking configuration. For at least some embodiments, at least removing that opening would be desirable, but would likely render the preferred illustrated embodiment of the '858 unworkable for its intended purpose since those teeth could then not be engaged.